Wednesday, July 5, 2017

I was listening to a report on NPR this morning concerning the modding of GTA V / Online. The modding was presented as an issue concerning intellectual property (IP) but I disagree. I reached out to the segment's reporter,

I think the IP argument is fair to make, though I personally disagree with it, and we'll probably get to why that is in a bit.

This is going to be a stream of consciousness kind of post, so it'll differ slightly in style from my usual.

Basically, my thoughts on modding in GTA (and gaming in general) is that it's fine if someone mods their own experience, but the experiences of others (especially in an online, public setting) should be consensual.

Let's compare Rust with GTA Online.

Rust is more like the traditional online gaming experience. Similar to StarCraft or Deus Ex, you know beforehand if you are playing in a vanilla session, or if the session is custom or modded. Rust has dedicated servers for modders, as well as dedicated servers for those who wish to only play with the standard settings. Similarly, rust has an anti-cheat program that is required to be used to play the game.

GTA online is fundamentally different in these regards. Every public session is commensurate with every other public session. So, instead of modding the scenario itself and allowing official support (Deus Ex, for example, was a single player game which the community decided should have multiplayer and then ion storm added it in). GTA Online has a persistent character, so that if your character attains or loses something in one session, that information persists onto the next server you visit. For example, if you play several hours worth of missions and buy a new car, all the RP/XP, money, possessions, etc follow to wherever your character goes. This also means that if someone mods those things out and Rockstar (take2?) doesn't catch it, then you potentially lose all those things.

Another fundamental difference between the sort of modding between these is that GTA online does not support modding, and it is against the TOS to mod. The problem is, with the unauthorized mods like those of the openIV, are that they inject the code using a particular form of data manipulation between the clients and the server. So someone can literally act as though they are someone else, or mod anyone's stats who happens to be on the session, etc. This can also result in persistent client side artifacts causing a mod to follow a person who isn't modding (in the form of glitching local data that the individual clients should not be able to normally interact with remotely).

The difference between this kind of modding and the modding one sees in most other online interactions is that, for example, someone can give you GTA$ they've modded onto themselves, drop it onto the world (or transfer it as though you're their associate helping with a mission when you're not, etc) and you can pick it up and the server treats it as though the server gave it to you.

Another interesting and annoying exploit is that anyone modding can simply execute a command to kill/blow up a player. So if you've been doing a warehouse mission for 20 minutes, they can just kill your character remotely at the last second and you get nothing. They can grief you repeatedly this way. Another interesting mod I ran across the other day was someone making controls not function properly to win a world event.

Another stupid thing is that rockstar can't seem to verify who is actually modding, as evidence by the 'Rockstar has noticed that your stats were adjusted by something outside your control, and we've adjusted it for you.' It's common knowledge right now that, if someone mods money to you, you can just buy expensive cars and stuff to sell later, and Rockstar won't touch any of that stuff you bought because its' not a stat they adjust. Get modded money, buy a car, switch session and sell the car, and your money is good. It's supremely frustrating, and it leads to another problem with the overall economy.

If people can just mod money in, no one will buy shark cards. Now, while I think the business of selling money to people is bad (IGN got in trouble for selling gold on WoW servers back in the day, if memory serves), it's not a bad way to support the game and the costs associated with running such a massive server-heavy operation.

However, there's absolutely no way I'm buying a Shark Card if I know that other people are just modding themselves millions of in-game currency for free, and that those people can effectively waste off any money I might buy.

How, you might ask? Well, it goes back to the adjustments that Rockstar makes. If they think your RP or GTA$ have been modded, they will take away whatever they believe to be modded. You could be completely unaware that someone modded a small GTA$ sum to you, and if Rockstar believes you got more than that, they will just adjust it. Same with RP. I think I hit level 96 or 99 five times in a row because I was constantly in modded sessions and the RP didn't persist.

Which brings us to the other very big issue. As we've pointed out before, because of the nature of the code being injected (CSS hijack perhaps?), Rockstar cannot tell with certainty who is actually modding whom. It is not so common knowledge (see the link) that they have an algorithm to place players they believe to be involved with modding into a 'cheaters pool.'

Now, I've never modded, but I've been the victim of modding on probably half the sessions I've joined at this point. It appears that I'm in the cheater's pool at least some of the time, and I have no recourse against it. Speaking of which.

CEO and other missions can only be completed in public sessions. One cannot do MC/VIP/CEO work etc in a private (invite only, crew, solo, or other) session. The session has to be public and populated by rockstar's algorithms. This means that I cannot avoid the modders at all if I want to do any of the online-only stuff. Rockstar doesn't give the option for having an offline (private session?) character. I can't play the online features of the game, effectively, in a private session where I do not have to worry about modders. I would love to be able to just jump on a private session, play with the new toys, etc, and not have to worry about some idiot griefing me to death. There's also no session balancing to speak of, so a person with a max level (likely modded) can get thrown into a session with people who are double digits and just screw around with them to no end. I don't even care if this functions as an alternate character that I can't use publicly.

While we're discussing the online multiplayer experience, it's not limited to just open sessions. I've been in multiplayer missions (tiny racers, deadline, death matches, etc - all the 'games' portion stuff with lobbies and matches etc) where people have modded themselves to be impervious to damage or whatever. It doesn't help that I've got a 60Mbps connection and half the time the server lags to no end, or it takes 10 minutes just to connect sometimes (cheater pool algorithm might be part of that).

Again, to sum it up, I think the IP argument is fair, I just do not think it is valid here. Rockstar is clearly more concerned about modders flubbing up the online space than they are about creators or offline/private session players modifying the game to create new intellectual property. Modding can be handled in creative ways, but I think Rockstar simply doesn't have the manpower to deal with this level of the illegitimate stuff.

I've even tweeted to them before, how do I report someone if I don't know which person is modding, and they've told me to report the person who is modding. They seem a tad out of touch on how grand this issue is.

Also, to be clear, I do not mod, and I do not condone this kind of modding. I do not care what people do in their own environment on their own private copy of the game. I only care when that infringes upon others' ability to enjoy the online experience as Rockstar intended, with people following the TOS and being kicked if they don't. However, again, Rockstar has no way of definitively determining who is perpetrating the exploits based upon my understanding of how their code works (which is cursory, to be fair), and as such has a very long uphill battle in this regard. I wish them the best, because I really enjoy playing the game online, and I really hate when people mod in the session I'm in.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Let's take a look at this article from Deepak Chopra, the title of which encourages skeptics to go radical.

Anyone who has had the audacity to question mainstream science soon runs afoul, particularly in the blogosphere, of hard-line skeptics.

Whatever that means. 'Mainstream' science is just science.

Whether they are simply insistent or outright aggressive, the skeptical viewpoint has long been founded on a simple principle.

Question everything, even this article. That's the principle.

Reality is what lies before us, in the three-dimensional world "out there" that's verified by the five senses.

So, things like dark matter aren't real because it doesn't exist in those three dimensions, and you can't taste it. Same thing with microwaves or IR light.

If you can see it, feel it, touch, taste, and smell it, the thing in question is real (making provisions for scientific instruments like telescopes and microscopes that extend the naked eye).

Well, which is it? Must I be able to experience them with my senses, or can I experience them by proxy?

No amount of argument shakes the skeptic's credo,

That's correct. We question things until we have solid evidence. I'm sure that won't come up again.

and so it's refreshing that they are being upended,

So you do not question things? Or you don't want us to require evidence for claims?

not only by metaphysics

HAHAHA.... oh no, you can't experience metaphysics with any sense, or instruments, but somehow it's real!

Excuse me while I catch my breath, I laughed too hard.

or deeper investigation into consciousness--all of which gets dismissed as woo-woo,

So you don't have even those instrument readings you just said were required, but we should just accept your claims as true? Well, I think you just admitted it isn't real, Deepak.

but by science itself.

That's the point, sir.

With the discovery of so-called dark matter and dark energy, which either obeys none of the laws of nature that apply to ordinary matter and energy or else conforms to those laws in a hidden way, the primacy of the visible universe has shrunk alarmingly.

Those things are real and we can detect them with instruments, which you just said were fine.

We cannot, however, seem to find a telescope, microscope, radio receiver, or anemometer that can pick up on metaphysical constructs that you've described elsewhere.

Every solid object in the cosmos,

Those made of matter, you mean. There are solid things not constructed of matter, like for example things made of dark matter.

including interstellar dust,

Why wouldn't it include that, again?

is barely the cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae,

A dark-matter sundae, no less. You really don't understand dark matter, do you?

because only a fraction of 1% of creation

No, it's not created. It simply is the universe. The cosmos. Don't use the word creation until you demonstrate a satellite dish that can receive information from a metaphysical creator. Remember, you need that for it to be real. Are you even paying attention to your own article?

is constituted by ordinary matter and energy.

Actually, you're off by an order of magnitude, because it's probably closer to 4% right now.

This common-sense objection to the physicalists,

You only think it common because you don't understand what that word means.

as materialists now prefer to be called,

Who cares?

doesn't shake their faith utterly,

Faith doesn't require evidence. Metaphysics has no evidence, by your admission. Therefore, you're the one with that kind of faith (since you're conflating terms here like the disingenuous person you are).

because it might be possible to redefine matter and energy in such a way that the old model of "if you can see it, it's real" won't collapse.

You're the one claiming that things have to be able to be sensed to be real, after all. Just because we can measure something doesn't mean we can sense it. Not in the meaning you're using, anyway. Again, conflation of terms.

But other challenges to physicalism are more radical,

...of which you've presented none here...

which is why skeptics need to follow their credo

...except when it comes to your claims, right?

to the nth degree and apply it to themselves.

Right back at you. Are you not skeptical of your own claims? Why do you not hold them to the same rigor?

Oh right. Can't hear us over your special pleading, can you? Also, I can't be skeptical of claims you aren't supporting with evidence. You need evidence for skepticism to play out. Otherwise you're just a modern-type cynic with a baseless assertion.

There is almost universal agreement among physicists that the universe emerged from a pre-created state that is a void,

No, there isn't, and you're an intellectually dishonest lout. If I were to correct your statement:

"There are mathematical observations upon which physicists rely, that describe the state of the early universe as expanding from nothing, the kind of nothing that Krauss and others have described at length. This is a fact that liars intellectually dishonest charlatans like Deepak Chopra will cherry-pick out to make himself look more credible, because he doesn't have a shred of scruples when it comes to honest discussion."

known as the quantum vacuum state.

Also known as "just one more thing Deepak doesn't understand."

This void offers no empirical data.

Virtual particles, for one. Dark matter, for another. We can observe them mathematically, predict them, and see their effects on the expansion of space.

The world's most powerful high-speed particle accelerators can barely budge any data from the quantum vacuum state,

If you insult my intelligence this severely again, I may become thoroughly unpleasant.

You have been warned.

whose existence is so abstract

It's not abstract. It explains how the world works. The quantum world.

that one might as well call it totally mathematical, i.e., mental.

You are the only mental one here. You do not understand the math, so you think people just make it up. You are a disgrace to the institution of philosophy that you claim to represent. You do not understand this and so you claim that no one can, because it would hurt your ego too severely if someone actually understands something you don't, that you have to act like you're the ultimate authority on sciences you probably couldn't comprehend if Feynman gave you a personal tour of his mind for the next several centuries. You couldn't grasp these concepts if you had until the end of time, and Carl Sagan himself explained it in painful detail. You would not understand the basics if Mr. Rogers held your hand and walked you through QED on the Magic Schoolbus.

Which is totally why the red shift is something only humans can observe. Yup. It's not an intrinsic part of the universe, nope.
/sarcasm

There are no fixed qualities of space, time, matter, and energy that exist "out there" without being extrapolated from human experience.

Wrong. You're just simply wrong. You are so incredibly wrong that I'm not even going to go into detail here. Here's a video on the alpha constant though.

If you want to be radically skeptical,

Deepak "THE EDGELORD" Chopra

look with doubt upon a basic fact like the big bang,

It's not as basic as you think, in this regard.

which we say in human time took place 13.8 billion years ago.

Roughly, yes. We also have ways to demonstrate how long that is independently of our own methodology. It's just handier for humans to speak to one another in human-friendly units. We could measure it in Planck times, but this wouldn't be useful to most people.

With so much agreement on this fact, how could anyone be skeptical?

Well, for a start, 'the big bang' wasn't really the thing, it's just common popular vernacular for describing the very earliest parts of the inflation. 'Big Bang' doesn't really explain it, because 'big bang' refers to a specific event hypothesized half a century or more ago. We've updated the models with new evidence.

The reason lies deeper than the clock ticking away on the shelf.

Not really, but I digress.

The big bang has no known origin

Correct, because it doesn't require one.

when you get to the finest level of time and space, known as the Planck scale.

Holy crap, I called that one. I actually hadn't read this far.

At this level, which is measured in trillionths of a second,

Close enough.

the emergent universe is about to be born.

Well, not exactly. The inflation was when time began. Don't look at it like the beginning of a timeline, though. Think of it more like a sphere. The beginning of time is the center of that sphere. You can't go beyond the center, obviously, because you'd just start going the other way.

Its birth wasn't a bang, for obvious reasons.

Mainly because it wasn't a 'bang.' It was an inflation. At the beginning (which you would do best to think of as the center of the universe in time) it was literally a point a planck-length across, probably less even, and it 'inflated' from there.

One, there was no sound,

This is mainly because matter wouldn't annihilate with antimatter for a bit, and create space as we commonly think of it for quite a while after.

and two, explosions require a place and a time.

Close enough I guess.

The Planck scale precedes time and space

No. Can't have measurements where space doesn't exist. No dimensions yet, remember? You can't have the smallest space and the shortest time before space and time existed.

(granting that "precede" makes no sense without time already existing).

See, you don't get it.

In this pre-reality,

Wrong again. You've defined your terms poorly, again. It's every bit as real as the center of the earth or sun.

if we can call it that,

Nope. We can't. You can, because you're dishonest, but I can't, because I'm not. So we cannot.

the universe originated everywhere at once,

Not really. You aren't following me, are you?

and contemporary theorists speculate over whether the same is true today as well.

[citation needed]

You can argue,

You, however, cannot.

from various viewpoints

Something else you lack.

like eternal inflation,

What, prithee tell, is 'eternal inflation?' Did you mean expansion? The inflation was a specific thing. Before it happened, time and space were infinitely dense, so to speak. They existed at null states in symmetry with dark matter etc.

that the existence of matter and energy, whether at the subatomic scale or on the massive scale of galaxies, is a process that never ceases.

Well, again, you seem to be referring to the expansion, but even then not really, because the expansion largely has nothing to do with galactic formations anymore. It's a thing that happens far from galaxies, in fact, because matter-heavy areas don't tend to expand as much for some reason.

Besides being timeless, it is also dimensionless.

The inflation? No. You are wrong. The various phases of the inflation did happen for specific periods of time, give or take, but you simply don't understand how time works. Maybe we'll discuss it in a future episode.

The whole notion of the quantum vacuum state, which is ground zero for reality,

Not really, no. What does this waffle even mean?

can be mathematically tinkered with so that the void has no dimensions,

No. That's so dumb... I think I just pulled an axon.

infinite dimensions,

Not based on observation, it can't.

or a specific number in between.

See, this is why you don't understand dimensions. I'm working on a hypothesis to describe reality, actually, and maybe even tie all the forces together neatly. I'm probably wrong. Either way, I'm still attempting to figure out if the stuff I'm thinking about can be tested. You are not. You haven't made any predictions we can test, apart from claiming the evidence is wrong. That's the only thing you've claimed which we have an ability to test for, and you come up wrong every time. Quit acting like that's the fault of someone else.

In a word, reality at its core is inconceivable,

Again, what does that mean?

and trying to model it with mathematical formulas may serve a certain purpose abstractly,

It serves a fine purpose practically, too. It predicts the force of gravity based on the mass of an object. It predicts the flow of electrons through a system. It predicts the rates of decay of radioactive atoms. Things we can test to see if our math is correct, and then how to correct our math for further predictions.

but even diehards like Stephen Hawking concede that current theory may be far removed from reality.

But unlike die-hard folks like Chopra, Hawking is open to his claims being wrong if new evidence presents itself. Which Chopra has yet to provide.

Skeptics should be chewing on the current imperfect and very malleable state of cosmology before they point accusations at anyone else.

Do you even read, bro? There's not a unified theory yet, and do you know why? It's because they ARE chewing on those problems, then going out and testing those hypotheses and reforming them based on observation. Something you seem quite content not to do.

The defense of common-sense physicalism is not only outmoded by about a hundred years,

You act like metaphysics is any different...

but it amounts to an article of faith and a superstition,

No, it doesn't. Science makes observations and then tests predictions based on those observations.

Metaphysics makes stuff up and then doesn't care what the observations are, because it'll just make up new stuff regardless of the observations.

Can you see the difference?

the very things the skeptic movements is dedicated to oppose.

You are not a skeptic. You don't question your own beliefs. You don't attempt to embrace evidence that could show you wrong, but that's what skepticism does. If I'm wrong, show me, and I'll have to change my opinion. If I don't think you are correct, but you can show that you are, then I must concede your point. Unfortunately, for you, you haven't done that.

In an era of radical skepticism,

*Edgelord*

should it ever arrive,

Passive-aggressive tripe.

a post-physicalist perspective could be of tremendous benefit to everyone.

Or it could be complete horseshit. Good thing we have empiricism to sort it out, if it ever arrives, right Deepak?

Thursday, March 16, 2017

So I got me a comment on a youtube video that's much too long to respond to. I'll do so here. It's on this video. Give it a watch if you haven't yet.

Let's dive right in.

Many of the questions you ask about this woman's position reveal an
incredible amount of ignorance about the subject.

Cool story bro.

Your comment about
Israelite cities is cringy because you have obviously never read any
scholarly literature about it. As a scholar of the ancient Near East
(milieu of the Bible), I can tell you that her observations about cities
are largely correct.

Fair enough. I never actually said she was wrong. Although, being a scholar, you do know that the first mention of Israel wasn't until about 1200 years or so after Jesus died, right?

My point was, if a god made heaven, why is it described as only being as good as the best city from two millenia ago? Sounds like god wasn't involved in this particular narrative, just people.

God certainly wouldn't have had the knowledge to know what a resort and casino is, right? Paradise was nothing more than a safe place to live to those people, because that would've been a huge step up in those days. Sucks god couldn't have told them how to cure polio or something, but at least heaven is a huge house where they can live with their horrible leprosy forever.

You can walk into the Semitic museum at Harvard
University and see exactly what she is talking about.

Yep. One museum at one university totally sums up the entirety of every civilization contained in the old testament over the course of the few thousand years it covers.

Also, there are SO
many Jewish and Christian views on hell and salvation.

Again, if your god created both of them, why is there more than one? Why is it a view? If god is threatening me with damnation, but we can't agree on what it is, how is that supposed to motivate me to avoid it? You seem to have ignored this point.

REGARDLESS of that, she was talking about the new testament mostly. I've discussed in some small detail the fact that Sheol is described as being under the earth, between the pillars of creation, and that the bible calls the sky a glass dome which contains the floodgates (literal gates) from which the rains flow.

Despite this, I have yet to see one picture of any of those things. What a view!

The fact that
you act like there is only one (presumably the one you originally
inherited from your parents?)

Did your god claim to make more than one heaven, more than one hell? I think my bible only has one book on creation, for some reason. If you have some other bible that says that god created a second heaven and earth in a second week or something, please present it! Otherwise, I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say that. I can only find one biblical creation story, and there's only one heaven ever created in it that contains the throne of god from which a river flows. Please, let me know. My bible has the apocrypha, but not that.

shows how incredibly shallow your
investigation into this was.

Says the guy who can't even follow my arguments.

Your comments about evangelism and the
reasons for believing in God is SOO frustrating.

If I'm not going to hell, why did Jesus die? If I can just leave hell, why did Jesus sacrifice himself?

I'm not sure I understand. Please, expound. If there's no negative consequence for not believing, and I'll definitely be allowed into heaven anyway... what is the motivation for your evangelism?

How can you be so one
dimensional?

You're the one throwing strawmen around like you're playing paper football on a line with no ends.

Did you parents tell you this?

No. I read most of it in this 'bible' thing you keep telling me I haven't read. Do you realize how condescending you are right now? Is the bible the word of your god or not, and if it is, do you really think he cares if you agree with it?

Religious people believe and
worship for all kinds of reasons.

Most people are religious for one reason, that they believe in a god (deity, universal power, whatever) and they believe there are consequences for not believing in a god. In fact, I would challenge you to find one person who is religious and believes in a god who does not also believe in some kind of universal judgement. Karma, Heaven and Hell, Valhalla, Samsara, etc.

You make so many assumptions about
what this woman believes without any evidence.

Do you have any evidence that ANY of the heavens or hells you claim to find in the bible are real? You can post a picture of Sheol here any day you like. I'd even settle for a small piece of that glass dome. However, I'm not actually making a positive claim, you see? All I'm saying is that hell is like a leprechaun: it doesn't exist. I can't show you something I don't have evidence for. Let's say you did want me to prove leprechauns don't exist. What would I show you, an empty field? A photograph of anything but a leprechaun?

Do me a favor. Prove to me that Thor doesn't exist in exactly the same way you think I should prove that Hell doesn't exist. I honestly don't know how to do it.

What if she doesn't think
that Jesus was omniscient?

Well then he wasn't god. Simple, right? I don't think my argument relies on that. The bible either is, or is not, the word of god.

If we both agree it wasn't, I don't see what the problem is. Also, in case you missed it, Jesus didn't write the bible. Also, in case you missed it, Jesus could supposedly LITERALLY talk to god. Also, Jesus claimed he was going to heaven (again, as though he'd been there before he was born or something) to prepare the place. He also claimed that people get cast into the fire and brimstone hell. A real place, that he allegedly literally died to save people from.

A LOT of Christians don't believe that.

So what? Again, if your bible is the word of god, do you really think he cares what you believe? If you and I both do not believe those things, aren't we both functionally atheist?

"Hey guys, I know the bible says these things, but I don't believe them..."

Why am I the atheist when you claim that those people are making that statement? Do they believe in god or not? Why would you say I believe less than them when they don't actually believe either?

Jesus claimed that mustard seeds were the smallest seeds in all the
world during a parable.

Again, I don't care. I agree with you, it's not the word of a god. Maybe we're both atheist, you and I.

That is not factual, but most Christians don't
care if Jesus doesn't have perfect knowledge of 21st century science.

Again, your god created him without it, for some reason. The perfect son of god, fit to be a sacrifice for all humanity, but there sure were a lot of imperfections in him for some reason.

Almost like he wasn't really talking to god, don't you think?

You should really investigate some of these issues more critically
before making videos.

Lastly, your comments about God not wanting women
to speak (sending them to hell for it....where does the Bible connect it
to hell, exactly?) really show that you never read any serious debates
about those issues.

Again, it's in the bible. I don't care if you don't believe in the bible. I also don't believe in the bible. But the verse is in there. The book of Timothy, actually. He wasn't important or anything, right? It's not like he was Paul's student or anything, right? It's not like they felt it was important enough to include in the book attributed to god, right?

You just blindly accepted someone's interpretation
(your parents?)

I agree, indoctrination by parents is really shitty sometimes. However, I referenced Young's Literal Translation. Go ahead, look it up. Take your time, you're the 'scholar' after all.

Then maybe go watch The Bible Skeptic for a while and see how an ACTUAL biblical scholar handles the bible. You could do well to learn things yourself.

or criticism of two statements from Paul's letters (the
HIGHLY debated 1 Cor 14 and 1 Tim 2) and applied it accordingly.

The whole book is highly debated. That phrase is meaningless. However, here's some bible verses on how women should be treated though.

Go ahead, tell me you don't believe those either. We can be atheist together!

This
ignores Paul's praise of a female apostle (look up what apostles do),

But for some reason the slaughter of Holophernes by Jude is apocryphal...

his regard for Phoebe (a deacon and the one that read his letter to the
church in Rome),

Another argument from anecdote. See, you really can use the bible to support any stance. Remember that part where Jesus said that unfruitful things should die? He's talking about women who don't have children. That one was Mark.

Let's see though, what an apostle does, while we're at it. According to this website,

(1) to have been an witness of the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1), (2) to have been explicitly chosen by the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:15), and (3) to have the ability to perform signs and wonders

So basically he was chosen by the holy spirit to deliver these messages. Messages that tell us that unfruitful women should be caused to wither away, and that women should be silent.

I'm not sure what else you could possibly mean. God chose them because they interpreted his message correctly, according to the book. Again, if you don't believe it, that's fine, neither do I.

Just read Romans 16 for a good primer
on this.

See, that's the thing. I don't have to skip the bits you don't like. I don't have to 'just read' certain parts. I can read the whole thing. Why don't you 'Just read' the parts I gave you, and ignore the rest, like you're asking me to do?

Oh, that's right. You'd have to be ethical and have scruples and intellectual honesty. Things you don't appear to be familiar with.

Additionally, there are numerous women in the New Testament
that speak freely (read the Gospels and Acts).

Funny, isn't it? How they didn't get the testimonies of those actual women in the forms of books like the men got.

How interesting a woman was never chosen to author a book by your god.

How very interesting that the only time women are allowed to 'freely speak' is when some man is deciding which of her words to write down.

How very, very interesting, indeed.

I could add Old Testament
women that have the same roles as men too

Which books did they write? I'm curious. My bible doesn't seem to have them.

(prophets, judges, etc).

Well, then much like the other major prophets, and even some minor ones, surely they have books that aren't authored by men? You said they get to speak freely, right? Or is it only free speech if a man writes down what he thinks she said?

Speaking of the old testament, why do women have less worth than men? Do you think it's related? Why can't female slaves go free as male slaves do? Equality, right?

Anyway, that's enough for me at the moment.

I'm sure this bit of mental gymnastics was quite the workout for you. Please, catch your breath! Maybe this can help.

Have a good day.﻿

I'll do whatever I please. Apparently you will also. Aren't those the best kind of days?

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

I just wanted to take a moment and make you all aware of this thing. I know my blog doesn't get a ton of views, but maybe go share the video.
If you feel that you are attracted to children, please seek help. If you refuse to do so, you may be my enemy.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Today I'm going to be responding to a few points from a Huffington Post blog entry. Is it a blog post if it's a new article op-ed? It is today, because journalism is complex. I'm calling it a blog post. You can call it whatever you like.

Also, this is the kind of thing I'm going to discuss with some friends and creators in my livestream hangout. Every Sunday we're getting together and discussing all the wonderful stuff we've come across. Skepticism is where it's at, and if you like my style, check this out tomorrow around 7pm EDT.

So, let us commence the articulation of the article's absence of argumentative ability!

At only 13 years old, aspiring astronaut and devoted “Hidden Figures”
fan Taylor Richardson is leading quite the philanthropic cause.

Earlier this week, Richardson was deemed GoFundMe’s February “Hero of the Month” after raising $17,000 through the fundraising website for people throughout the nation to go see the hit movie.

Well, I must say, that's quite heroic, raising money so that people can
go enjoy a night at the movies. Certainly that's more philanthropic
than something like this. Please visit that link and help Rorschach if you can. I know he's not a black engineering lady, but maybe you can find it in your heart to give him a few bucks because his house burned down, he is a single father with a child to support, he is a victim of domestic abuse, and so on.

Anyway. Even if you can't help, that's fine. Just keep reading, put it in the back of your head, and remember that people gave $17,000 for other people to go watch a movie. Philanthropy, they call it.

“Hidden Figures” is centered around three black women mathematicians who played a pivotal role in sending the first American into space.

I have no problem with this. The director of software engineering was a woman, after all.

Pictured is Margaret Hamilton next to a stack of all the fucks she doesn't give about your accusations of the patriarchy being a thing. You could do well to learn from Margaret.

“I hope [the movie] inspires them to
know they can do anything they put their mind to,” Richardson told The
Huffington Post earlier this week.

You know, maybe you should have raised money for food to combat hunger. Maybe raise money for a mission to the middle east to combat apostacy laws. Instead, you are paying people to go see a movie that reminds them that, in fact, women had a much larger role in history than Huffington Post's narrative allows. Wonder if they'll address this point somewhere. "Sources say no" is what the magic 8 ball tells me.

Thus far, Richardson and her mother have given over 800 people the
opportunity to attend a free screening of the movie (with snacks) and ―
for a number of them ― receive the Hidden Figures book.

Again, I have no problem with the book or the movie. I'm sure they're both wonderful, and I do love history. Speaking of women in science and math, go google 'Feynman Human Computers.' It is fascinating. However, let's take a moment to realize that they just spent about $22/person that could easily have been spent on actual philanthropy. Is it really empowering to watch how people overcame racism when we now have affirmative action? I don't know. Again, my issue isn't with the gofundme itself, Taylor seems like a nice girl or whatever. Maybe she'll be an astronaut and be the first person on Mars (though Cody's Lab might give her a run for her money). My main issues are only around this article and the people who wrote it. Please don't conflate the two.

“It shows me that women, and especially
African-American women, can do anything a guy can do and anything a
white male can do,” she said of the movie.

Generally, that's true. If you want to put out the effort to do these things, you can. While this child doesn't realize it, though, that's incredibly racist. It's 3rd wave feminism 101. No one is holding you down, Taylor. I want you to be successful. I want you to train hard and shoot for the stars. I wish you all the best. Just quit pretending that I'm superior to you because I'm white, because I'm not. We are both humans, Taylor. Don't be like so many of your peers and make excuses for why you can't (because of patriarchy, for example), but rather just go out and do and learn and become what you want to become.

While the two know the movie won’t compel everyone to aspire towards
having a career in space, like it has with Richardson, they hope that
through the Hidden Figures books, kids will at least be able to
develop a heightened interest in literacy, something Richardson has
regularly been working towards in her community.

Again, this is commendable, but it still slightly misses the point. Some people simply aspire to be the opposite of literate. It is not your duty to force them to want to learn or succeed, though it would be a great outcome. Some people do not strive to have personal responsibility, and would rather blame white men (or something) for their perceived problems. Taylor is not one of those people, I think. It is a noble cause to try to educate those who do not want to be educated. Sometimes we have to simply accept that some people don't want to be pioneers, but instead just want to be a lowest common denominator.

When she was nine years old,
Richardson said she encountered a young boy at a hospital who didn’t
have easy access to books. After that, she decided to hold book drives
in her hometown in his honor called “Taylor Takes Flight With A Book.”

To date, Richardson has collected and donated over 5,000 books in Jacksonville and read to over 300 children. She’s also worked on an anti-bullying campaign with the CEOs of Florida First Coast YMCA and Girl Scouts of Gateway Council.

Again, excellent work. This is a good example of problem-solving skills. I support this 100%.

But Richardson’s philanthropic trajectory isn’t what’s made her mother most proud: it’s her resilience.

Just a bit of semantics here: You don't get to be proud of someone else's achievements, sorry. I mean, unless I can also be proud of her achievements. Sorry, my grammar stickler got in the way. Moving on.

“I tell people all the time:
what makes me most proud of Taylor is not what you hear and all these
success stories, but how she handles her failures,” her mother told
HuffPost.

But the persevering spirit
of Richardson ― who was bullied, held back in the second grade and once
struggled with literacy ― can best captured in the way she turned around
her ADHD diagnosis.

See, ending on a positive note. At least Huffpost isn't as cancerous as buzzfeed. Although they did miss 'be' in 'can best captured.' Come on Huffpost, you have editors, you are professional news site. Catch this stuff. I can live with most of the other bits. This grammatical error really irked me though.

In closing, I say good luck to Taylor. Hopefully next time Huffpost can headline with "This girl is combating illiteracy and bullying" rather than "This girl sent some people to the movies." I'm sure there's a lesson for GoFundMe in there also.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Well, it's been a minute since I've written anything here. In case you're unaware, I do have a Youtube channel.

Here's my most recent video.

I really do enjoy blogging, but I don't have as much time for it as I once did. However, I'm going to try to get back into this, so here we go. Today I'm going to do another response.

Answers in Genesis has decided, once again, to tackle a subject that is perhaps a bit more subtle than they let on. This article is entitled "Prescription for Morality" and was posted on 7 Feb 2017.

We often take pills to feel healthier, to ease pain, or to relieve
symptoms. But what if you could take a pill to become a more moral you?
According to an article in the National Post,

Neuroethicists and others thinkers are increasingly absorbed by the
idea of “moral enhancement” through pharmaceuticals, implanted brain
electrodes or other biomedical means.

Leading proponents argue advances in cognitive neuroscience suggest
morally desirable capacities may, at least in part, be
neurologically-based and therefore amenable to tinkering.

Some envision a day when we could use drugs that act directly on the
brain to dial down aggression and other “anti-social” sentiments and
dial up “pro-social” ones like compassion and trust.1

Some studies have indeed suggested that certain prescription drugs do
modify behavior, making people, for example, “more cooperative, less
critical of others and more sensitive to other people’s pain.”

This is basically fine. I don't take much exception with it. It's a thought-provoking question regarding the ethics of drugs. Is it ethical to give people drugs if it's going to change their personality? Generally, we don't have many ethical qualms about this, as long as the effects are not psychotropic in the extreme, for example. It's certainly unethical to force someone to take something detrimental, but it's seldom unethical to require things like vaccines or antidepressants.

There are many problems and concerns with such an idea, but the most obvious problem is pointed out in the National Post
article: “How do we decide what constitutes a moral deficiency? Who
should be allowed to make these decisions about what is good and what is
bad?”

That's also a reasonable point to bring up. Should we be allowed to control the behaviors of others to benefit society? Also, there's a minor problem here, because we're discussing ethics, not morals. Should the courts be allowed to decide what is good and bad based upon the laws, to remove certain liberties from criminals? The same question is fundamentally at play here. I think there could be compelling arguments on both sides here, and I'm hoping AiG actually takes some time to think about them. I hate responding to the simple stuff. I want to think.

This isn’t a problem unique to neuroethicists seeking to alter human
behavior.

Excellent point. Although, attempting to define the degree to which drugs affect the brain is, in fact, a problem unique to neuroscientists and the like.

Atheists, secularists, and others who reject God’s Word as the
authority have precisely the same problem.

Darn it, Avery. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. It's pretty clear in the bible that god can alter people's mental states if he so desires. Remember, he supposedly creates everyone. Beyond that, however, the Bible is literally a code that also restricts people's moral and ethical choices.

If you think for one moment that teaching an impressionable child that hell is real is not affecting their mental state like a drug, then you simply don't understand brain chemistry.

Without an ultimate
foundation for morality, who gets to decide what is moral or immoral?

Again, we're discussing ethics. I don't expect you to know the difference, but I do expect you to at least research what you're trying to discuss. Everyone has different morals. There is no objective morality. If you disagree with any of the laws in the bible, regardless of whether or not you follow them, you have a different morality than that which is laid out in the bible. It's a code of ethics, just like any doctrine of law.

However, to answer the question directly, we humans get to decide collectively what is good and ethical. We no longer believe that stoning your child to death for speaking up against his father is a good, moral idea. Your bible does, though.

Some say the individual gets to decide.

Morality is, indeed, a personal thing. Some people have orange-blue morality. In fact, from where I'm standing, you have a blue/orange morality. Every action in your life is dictated by whether or not you think some imaginary being is going to send you to some hell that isn't even well-defined, and that none of you can seem to agree on. Is baptism necessary and therefore moral? I don't care, and I surely don't understand why you think taking a bath is a good moral thing. Should you do like the bible says and not permit women to teach or speak publicly? Again, I think that's completely immoral and unethical, but your bible says you gotta do it to get into heaven.

But what if my morality is
different from your morality?

We've been over this. Everyone has different morality. However, most morality falls along a black/white spectrum. Some people have orange/blue. Still, I think you're discussing ethics, not morals. Remember that part about neuroethicists earlier? There's a reason they're not called neuromoralists.

I'm glad we agree that genocide, rape and pedophilia are not okay, regardless of what the book you're trying to push says.

If this is the
case, then we need to throw out our justice system, because how can one
judge decide if my actions were right or wrong?

Let's re-word that. "If this is the case, then we need to throw our the bible, because how can one book decide if my actions were right or wrong?"

If it was right for me,
then who are you to say it was wrong?

You really do seem to be lacking self-awareness here.

Some people will say that morality is decided by the individual, but
they add an arbitrary qualifier such as “people should strive to choose
actions that do the most good and the least harm for the most people.”

Strawman. Also, I think you're discussing ethics again. The most ethical actions tend to be those that do the most harm (or the least bad) to other humans, at least generally.

But this is just an arbitrary opinion.

Yeah, exactly the same as believing the bible is the arbiter of morality. Mark 7:20-23 says you should be careful with your pride, and your judgement, lest ye risk hellfire. Well, here we are, and ye be casting judgement proudly. Is the bible really the source of your morality, and if it is, why do you constantly disagree with it?

Why should I try to do good to
others?

That's how society works. There are evolutionary advantages to not doing things that will get you killed, for example.

Why not just do what benefits me?

So you don't think that living within the constraints of law is beneficial to you? You can't see any reason to be nice to other people that would benefit you? I would hate to be as miserable as that all the time.

And who defines good or harm anyway?

Society, generally. Harm we can define pretty easily. Harm is generally those things which are detrimental. Rape is harm because you're physically harming someone. Consensual sex is not harm because both parties are wanting to engage in it (presuming both are of the age of consent, of course).

However, your bible disagrees with this, because women are property, and cannot be raped. See the aforementioned links. I also discuss this in this video.

Don't be like Dennis Prager.

Others will say society decides what is right and wrong.

Even the bible holds this view. God appoints people to speak for him or whatever, and as a society people believed it. Next point.

But this runs
into the same problem, only on a larger scale. If this is the case, one
society can’t judge another society’s actions as wrong.

We can, actually. It's why we have international courts and human rights coalitions. Just because you disagree with this doesn't make you correct. You have yet to show why bringing others harm should be part of our codes of ethics.

Yet we know
certain things are wrong: exterminating millions of people in a genocide
or bombing innocent people to further your cause—we recognize that
these things are wrong.

Yes, we do. Your bible does not. The bible is full of genocide. Three of the most famous stories from the bible are of genocide.

The fall of Jericho

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The release of the horsemen and the killing of unbelievers in Revelations

But why are they wrong?

We've been over this.

Well, if society
determines morality then they aren’t wrong. They just might be wrong for
your society.

See, you're not understanding. Sometimes societies do that. That's why part of the world has no problem with Sharia law, but most of the rest of the world does take exception to killing apostates, for example. Even you would probably tell me you don't support the crusades, stoning your wife for speaking, or killing your neighbor if he kills your ox, or owning slavery; though they are founded on exactly the same principles and morals/ethics found in the bible.

Can Atheists Be Moral?

If atheists have no foundation for morality, does this mean they can’t
be moral citizens? Of course not; many atheists are decent, moral
people.

See, I knew you could be reasonable. We don't need to believe it is okay to take child brides from tribes we warred against.

But that’s not the issue.

Then why are you even writing this article?

The point is that they are living
inconsistently with their worldview.

Wrong. We are living in a way that is ethical, and we're doing it by ignoring the same parts of the bible you ignore.

They claim we are just animals

So what?

and
that there is no absolute authority for morality,

You seem to agree. Did you get a dowry for marrying your wife, or are you destined for the same hell as me?

yet they live as if
there is a moral code and moral absolutes.

Again, how do you lack this much self-awareness?

They are inconsistent

I feel like I was the one writing half of this article.

because
you can’t actually live with the belief that there are no moral
absolutes.

...which is why every christian follows every single word in the bible to a fault. If your god is all-powerful, do you really think he cares which parts you don't like? When I was a christian, I had no problem accepting every part of the bible as true. I just presumed that I was going to hell for not stoning my female teachers. I was okay with that, though, because I knew that was wrong, regardless of what the bible said.

So they borrow from a Christian worldview of moral absolutes
to support their own erroneous worldview.

No, we don't. You seem to have an erroneous view of the bible, though.

Arbitrary human opinion can’t provide a foundation for morality.

Well, not unless it is your specific human opinion, right? If your special pleading were any harder, I think your brain might dislodge from your cranium.

For
that we must look to the inspired Word of our Creator.

No. Jesus didn't write the bible for some reason. Neither did YHWH.

Morality is
grounded in the character of God and revealed to us through the Bible.

Yes. That's why, if your god is real, I will fight against him. However, I don't think he's real, so I'm debating you instead on some old pieces of paper with backwards ideals.

We can know what is right and wrong and make moral judgments because
God’s Word provides a foundation for morality.

You keep telling me your god is the ultimate foundation for morality while also telling me things in the bible are completely wrong. I don't understand your point. Are you actually trying to sell me on this, or are you purposefully trying to make it so I never join?

I think I've got you wrong, Avery. I think you're actually exactly as atheist as I am, maybe all of you in AiG are. You're running this organization as anti-theists, trolling everyone into thinking you're christian, so that no one will want to be that. If that's the case, you're doing a spectacular job. You are a bunch of top-level trolls...

At least, that's my fantasy. I doubt it's reality, because I don't think anyone at AiG has had to deal with reality in a very long time.

Although pills might be able to make moderate improvements on
behavior, ultimately the answer to immoral behavior isn’t
pharmaceuticals.

Oh yeah, the fake premise you opened this article on then never touched again until the conclusion. See why I think you're trolling? You don't care about the issue, you only care about complaining about atheists. I wonder why you never decry other religions in pieces like this? Do you honestly think that muslims, jews, satanists, pagans, etc aren't theists? Or do you just think whatever morals they hold are okay because at least they believe in some god, even if he's contradictory to yours and the morals you hold?

The Bible describes the human heart as “deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9),

Yeah, why did your god make us like that? Is that moral behavior to do this kind of thing?

and God says, “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21).

Which is why you aimed this piece at atheists instead of non-Christians, right?

By the power of the Holy
Spirit, those of us who have been redeemed can overcome sin and our
sinful natures and live for Christ (Galatians 5:16).

You know, I don't believe that sin is real. I don't need you policing my thoughts like some mind NAZI. You are not the morality police. You aren't even consistent in your message. I think people do bad things, yes, but I don't think a god designed him in his image to be that way.

Indeed, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old
things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Why couldn't god just make us without sin? You have one sadistic god.

The life-changing power of the gospel is what transforms hearts and lives.

Making people feel bad for simply being human in order to guilt-trip them into believing and subjugating to your book, is not ethical in my opinion. You act as though this would be unethical if anyone else did it, but you have no problem doing it.

Well, that's the end of that one. Best regards, and better luck next time.

About Me

My name is Josh, and I am a full-time factory worker with an interest in writing, knitting, photography, computers, cycling and lots of other things. I'm 30 years old.

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